Nostalgia and linkage

This one, I got a kick out of although I'm not a smoker and never have been.

Smokers of the Marvel Universe

It brings back fond memories of reading the old Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four when I was a kid, with Mr. Fantastic being all Fred MacMurray with his pipe...

It's been a long time, but you can still see it in old movies, old comics, old newspaper cartoon--the way smoking style was used as an indicator of certain character traits. Plain old cigarettes were common enough that they didn't really indicate anything in particular, but the less common tobacco products certainly did.

Cigarette in holder - if female, femme fatale or exotic; if male, perhaps a little too cultured (particularly if he's also got on a dressing gown and fez).

Cigar - tough guy, very likely with a rough exterior concealing a good heart.

Pipe - fatherly type, or perhaps a professor, absent-minded or otherwise.

Chewing tobacco - unsavory type, or possibly a hillbilly, although a corncob pipe was probably more likely in the latter case.

I can't really complain about the lack of this in current comics (or media)--there are certainly ways to indicate what Nick Fury or Ben Grimm are like other than sticking a cigar in their mouths--but it's an interesting bit of visual shorthand that's gone by the wayside along with smoking itself, for the most part.